A person born with both female and male genitalia has said they had to give 'the best of both worlds' while doing sex work.
Jahni Leggett, who is an intersex activist, took to an episode of Jubilee's Ask Me Anything? where they opened up about their journey and the intersex community.
Let's first look at the definition, with Jahni explaining: "Intersex is an umbrella term that is able to explain lived experiences of people who have bodily variations, and that can go to chromosomes, it goes to genitalia, it goes to hormones.
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"There are like 40 different intersex traits that are on the books. A lot of people didn't even know that their intersex trait is an intersex trait, but share the experience of intersex people. It's such a wide range."
As for Jahni, who goes by she/her and they/them pronouns, they were born with 'ambiguous genitalia'.
"I had a penis and then I had like a pseudo vagina opening, but they went ahead and closed that up and let me move on," they said.
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As such, Jahni was brought up as a boy, only to find out they're intersex when they were 18 years old and started experiencing dramatic weight fluctuations.
After undergoing tests at the doctors, they were diagnosed with partial androgen insensitivity syndrome, a condition that occurs when the body can't respond to testosterone.
Jahni continued: "My body had a really hard time fully masculinising, so my voice didn't really drop, body hair is pretty limited, I grew breasts when I was 10...
"Growing up through school, I was always seen as an androgynous kid. I had breasts and I went to the boys' locker room. I've been in the girls' locker room. I did it all."
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The activist was also asked about whether they've been fetishised for being intersex, to which Jahni replied: "I did sex work when I was younger. I feel like I made myself this fetish in a way, and tailored myself into this fetish of 'giving the best of both worlds', like that's how I sold."
"So it's kind of like a double-edged sword," they added, explaining that it was a 'need' at the time more than something they wanted to go and do.
In regard to Jahni's dating life, they just 'move with the flow' and tend to lean towards people with 'masculine energy'.
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"For dating, I wear everything on my sleeve," they said. "I'm out there, open. If you know me, you probably know I'm intersex out the cut."
As said, Jahni is an intersex activist, and so what better person to discuss what some of the intersex community's biggest goals are right now?
"We've been working on for many years to end non-consensual intersex surgery [and] at least get those pushed back until the age of consent," they said.
"And another big one that we have is this social education aspect. I have to engage with the medical community very differently than the average person.
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"The erasure within just the medical field itself – there are times where doctors have blacked out people's records so they can't actually see what happened. Some doctors don't even know what intersex means.
"It's interesting to me that you'd prefer to do surgery on these people when you don't know more about their traits.
"To hear that doctors are doing this to people consciously, I think trips a lot of people out and makes them take a step back."
The Q&A has received hundreds of comments, with many people expressing their gratitude towards Jahni for being so open and helping to educate the world on the intersex community.
Topics: Life, Sex and Relationships, LGBTQ
Daisy Phillipson